Species
+

Paulownia tomentosa (Thunb.) Steud.

Blauglockenbaum (DE), Foxglove tree, Foxglove-Tree, Karri tree

Climate known 49 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Paulownia tomentosa, common names princess tree, empress tree, or foxglove-tree, is a deciduous hardwood tree in the family Paulowniaceae, native to central and eastern China and the Korean Peninsula. It is an extremely fast-growing tree with seeds that disperse readily and is considered an invasive exotic species in North America that has undergone naturalisation in large areas of the Eastern US, even though seed viability may be low under harsh conditions. P. tomentosa has also been introduced to Western and Central Europe, and is establishing itself as a naturalised species there as well.

Text from Wikipedia, “Paulownia tomentosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Paulownia

Paulownia is a genus of seven to 17 species of hardwood trees in the family Paulowniaceae, the order Lamiales. The genus and family are native to east Asia and are widespread across China. The genus, originally Pavlovnia but now usually spelled Paulownia, was named in honour of Anna Pavlovna, queen consort of The Netherlands (1795–1865), daughter of Tsar Paul I of Russia. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Paulownia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Paulowniaceae
Described by
(Thunb.) Steud.
Native to
China South-Central, Manchuria, China North-Central +2
Wild records
62 in range· 18 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1319mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Jul 300 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–37DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1319 mm a year, wettest July at 300 mm, driest December at 22 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Bignonia tomentosa Thunb.; Incarvillea tomentosa (Thunb.) Spreng.; Paulownia coreana Uyeki; Paulownia glabrata Rehder; Paulownia grandifolia Wettst. and 13 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1002 mm of 1319 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.7 °C against a yearly mean of 12.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1319 mm a year, wettest July at 300 mm, driest December at 22 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1319 mm a year at the habitat, 1002 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 300 mm, driest December at 22 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 848 mm to 1607 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -8.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.7 °C, the absolute minimum -14.7 °C, about 62 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -4.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -10.0 °C to 0.0 °C), warmest day 27.8 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 3 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from -5 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1319 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 61 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -14.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost31.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-14.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 16–37RH 55–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 61 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C3 / 0–75 / 3–910 / 8–1416 / 13–2022 / 18–2526 / 21–2827 / 25–3128 / 25–3024 / 22–2619 / 16–2112 / 9–156 / 3–9
Night °C-5 / -10–0-3 / -7–21 / -2–56 / 5–1012 / 10–1617 / 16–2021 / 20–2322 / 19–2416 / 14–209 / 7–153 / -0–8-3 / -6–3
Rain mm29 / 13–4535 / 16–5454 / 33–8477 / 44–114100 / 76–154151 / 100–217300 / 165–407286 / 157–336165 / 99–20353 / 44–8347 / 27–6222 / 14–35
DLI17 / 16–1923 / 21–2429 / 25–3035 / 31–3637 / 34–3835 / 33–3730 / 28–3429 / 28–3126 / 25–2824 / 20–2517 / 16–1916 / 14–17
RH %56 / 52–5955 / 52–5855 / 53–5955 / 53–6058 / 56–6361 / 57–6666 / 62–7165 / 62–6861 / 60–6458 / 56–5957 / 54–5956 / 53–58

Each figure is the median across the 61 grid cells holding the 61 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1079:6183 (36.025, 129.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -14.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 61 distinct grid cells holding the 61 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1079:6183 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.00_129.375, lapse-corrected +85 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 205 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Korea· introduced: Great Britain, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Japan, Bangladesh, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker35.425, 128.213 · in the densest population, 33 records (53% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 62 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 18 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 1638 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 62 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Paulownia tomentosaPaulownia tomentosaPaulownia tomentosaPaulownia tomentosaPaulownia tomentosaPaulownia tomentosaPaulownia tomentosaPaulownia tomentosa

Photographs: (c) Henry Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Sandy Wolkenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Paulownia tomentosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Geranylated flavonoids displaying SARS-CoV papain-like protease inhibition from the fruits of Paulownia tomentosa
Jung Keun Cho, Marcus J. C. Long, Kon Ho Lee, Dae Wook Kim (2013) · Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
Life History of the Invasive Species Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) in Northeastern United States
Anne L. Nielsen, George C. Hamilton (2009) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Effects of Photoperiod on Growth of Trees
R. J. Downs, H. A. Borthwick (1956) · Botanical Gazette
Seed bank formation during early secondary succession in a temperate deciduous forest
Laura A. Hyatt, Brenda B. Casper (2000) · Journal of Ecology
In vitro induction and identification of tetraploid plants of Paulownia tomentosa
Zhi-Qiang Tang, Chen Dong-ling, Zhaojian Song, Yuchi He (2010) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
Anti-inflammatory Activity of Natural Geranylated Flavonoids: Cyclooxygenase and Lipoxygenase Inhibitory Properties and Proteomic Analysis
Zuzana Hanáková, Jan Hošek, Zsófia Kutil, Veronika Temml (2017) · Journal of Natural Products
Antibacterial C-Geranylflavonoids from Paulownia tomentosa Fruits
Karel Šmejkal, Stanislav Chudík, Pavel Klouček, Radek Marek (2008) · Journal of Natural Products
The stimulatory effect of non-equilibrium (low temperature) air plasma pretreatment on light-induced germination of Paulownia tomentosa seeds
Suzana Živković, Nevena Puаč, Zlatko Giba, D. Grubišić (2004) · Seed Science and Technology
C-Geranyl Compounds fromPaulownia tomentosaFruits
Karel Šmejkal, Lenka Grycová, Radek Marek, Filip Lemière (2007) · Journal of Natural Products

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 98 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.